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Evans

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Evans Surname Genealogy

The surname Evans is a patronymic (son of) name from Ieuan
or Evan, the Welsh form of John. There were several early
references to
Iuean in Welsh history, starting with St. Ieuan in the 6th
century.
The Welsh construction ap Evan has yielded the surname Bevan.

Wales. Evans as a surname dated from the early
1500's. The first reference was to a John Yevans in the 1533
Monmouth
records.Its early adoption, in place of
the old Welsh patronymic forms, often occurred with those who had
English
contact.

Evan yr Halen (Evan the salt) was a 16th century salt merchant and one
of the richest men in Glamorgan at the time.His grandson David Evans was High Sheriff of Glamorgan in 1563.Thomas Evans built his home at the Gnoll estate
in
the Neath valley in 1666.Related Evans
became coalmine owners at nearby Eaglebush in the 19th century.

The Evans name has
appeared mainly in south Wales.Other
early
examples were:

Richard ap Humphrey of Llanaelhaearn, also known as Richard
Evans, who
was High Sheriff of Caernarvonshire in 1625.Later
Evans of this family were recorded at Henblas in
Anglesey.

Euan ap Gruffydd
of Penywenallt in Cardiganshire, also known as Evan Griffith Evans, who
was a
Royalist officer during the Civil War and spent some time in Cardigan
prison.A descendant was the 18th century
cleric and
historian Theophilus Evans.

the Evans at Acheth in Carmarthenshire who date
from about 1630.This family built their
Highmead estate in 1777 and became
the
Davies-Evans.

and an Evans family that was active in Noncormist Baptist
circles in Breconshire from the 1650's. Later Evans were based in
Bristol, including Dr. Caleb Evans who championed the American cause
against John Wesley in the 1770's.

Evans were farmers around
Llanddeusant on the Black Mountain in Carmarthenshire from the early
1700ís to
the late 1900ís.The first of this
family was Rees
Evan, born in 1691 and a yeoman farmer.The surname had become Evans with the birth
of Evan Evans a hundred years later.

David Evans, the son of Evan David, was
born in Llantrisant, Glamorgan in 1757.His descendants for many generations were farmers and local
brewers.Later Evans became silk merchants
in London and Sir David Evans made it to be Lord Mayor of London in
1891.
England.
By the 19th century, Evans remained very much a Welsh surname.
However,
there had been some spillover into English counties, in particular into
Shropshire,
Staffordshire and Lancashire. An early example was John
Evans, born in Wales and a Shrewsbury alderman,
bailiff and MP in the 1540ís and 1550ís.

Thomas Evans of Darley in Derbyshire was a
prominent early industrialist. His son Walter built a cotton mill
in the
village in 1783 and the family - who were to own Alliestree Hall -
became local
gentry and MP's.

Ireland.
Evans came to Ireland in the 17th century.Most
were to be found in Ulster.Colonel George
Evans from Carmarthenshire
arrived in county Cork at this time.Thomas Evans came into possession of Milltown Castle there in
the early
1700ís.His son Eyre married a Limerick
heiress and moved to that county.Eyreís
eldest son Eyre invested in a local Limerick bank which failed in 1820.
America. Welsh immigrants, many of them
Quakers, headed for Pennsylvania where there was religious
toleration. The four
Evans sons of Evan Robert Lewis from Merionethshire were Quakers
who founded in 1698 the Welsh tract near Philadelphia which they called
Gwynedd.

Evans at Gwynedd included:

Evan Evans who proselyted for
the Anglican church there.Oliver Evans,
his grandson, was an American inventor and industrialist in
Philadelphia.
In the early 1800ís he pioneered an automated grist mill for flour and
a
prototype for a steam engine.

and Owen Evans, born there in 1699.His
descendants later moved to South Carolina
and then to the Quaker community of Waynesville, Ohio.From there came Jason Evans, a Cincinnati
pork packer and banker, and John Evans, Governor of Colorado territory
in
1862.

Canada.
James Evans was a seafarer from Hull in
Yorkshire who decided to emigrate to Canada with his family in 1821.They settled in Grenville, Ontario.His son James became a Methodist minister,
working with the Hudson Bay Company at their remote Norway House north
of Lake
Winnipeg in Manitoba.In this work he
learnt the local Indian languages and was able to put them into print.

Another Evans family was also of English
extraction, but originating from Ireland.Francis Evans from Westmeath came to Ireland around 1830 and was
a
Protestant minister in southern Ontario, near Simcoe.His son Thomas followed his fatherís
vocation, but in the small village of Tadoussac along the St. Lawrence
river in
Quebec.
Argentina.There
was an
Evans family among the first Welsh
colonists to
Patagonia on the Mimosa in 1865.Daniel
Evans, aged three at the time of
the voyage, helped establish a new Welsh colony at the
foot of
the
Andes in 1891 and lived on there until 1943.

Select
Evans Miscellany.

If you would like to read more, click on the miscellany page for
further stories and accounts:

Theophilus
Evans was the fiirst historian of the Welsh, with his book Mirror The First Age written in
Welsh in 1716. John
Evans was the Welsh explorer who produced an early map of the
Missouri river. Mary Ann Evans was the Victorian
author of novels such as The Mill on
the Floss, who wrote under the name of George Eliot. Godfrey Evans played for the
English cricket team as wicketkeeper during the 1940's and 1950's.
Bill Evans was one of the most influential jazz pianists of the
20th century. Harold
Evans was a well-known British journalist and newspaper editor.